News release

Citizens' Assembly gets new member

The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform welcomes a new member today.

He is Andrei Popa, 34, from the electoral district of Vancouver-Langara. He was picked by random selection to replace John Fong, a Vancouver chiropractor who resigned for personal reasons.

Popa is a software engineer for Mobile Data Solutions Inc. of Richmond. Originally from Romania, he has been a B.C. resident since 1997. He’s single, a sports fan, and likes to play a little basketball during the summer.

The Assembly has 160 members from all over B.C. – one man and one woman from each of the 79 provincial electoral districts, plus two Aboriginal members.

The Assembly members will spend much of 2004 examining electoral systems in use around the world, and will decide if they should propose a change to B.C.’s current system of translating votes into seats in the Legislature.

If the Assembly members recommend a change, it will be the subject of a referendum for all voters in the 2005 provincial election. Any change approved by the voters would take effect with the 2009 B.C. election.